Flow States – LA TRIENAL 2024 is El Museo del Barrio’s second large-scale survey of Latinx contemporary art. Organized by El Museo’s chief curator Rodrigo Moura, curator Susanna V. Temkin, and guest curator María Elena Ortiz, the exhibition will feature 33 participating artists working across the United States, Puerto Rico, and—for the first time—extending into new geographies that reflect the complexities of diasporic flows, with artists based in the Americas, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia.
Emphasizing plurality and a sense of movement, the title, Flow States, is a pun on creative focus and the fluidity of geographic boundaries and cultural exchanges. This phrase connects to diasporic themes—broadly defined as a dispersion, scattering, and flux of populations, languages, and cultures—that inform the exhibition. The selected artists share interests related to transformation, porosities of landscape and the built environment, spiritual connections, collective memories, hybrid belongings, and material exchanges. This edition builds on the framework of the critically acclaimed ESTAMOS BIEN – LA TRIENAL 20/21, the museum’s inaugural survey of Latinx contemporary art—the first of its kind in the United States. Flow States will be accompanied by a fully illustrated, bilingual publication.